Chapter Text
“Your new President of the United States of America, Matthew Santos!”
Josh Lyman stood up started clapping as hard as he could. He looked at his new boss with complete adoration. He knew President Santos had giant shoes to fill thanks to his old boss Jed Bartlet, but he was confident that the two of them could do a lot of good for this country.
Josh had happy moments before, ecstatic even, but nothing topped this moment. He was now officially the Chief of Staff to the single most powerful man in the world. A man who he pulled out of the depths of Texas and put in this position because he believed in him. That feeling alone would have easily made his top five experiences. But there was something else that was fueling his happiness as well.
He looked to his left and she was already looking at him. Standing and clapping right beside him was Donna Moss. They had gone through a whirlwind together in the last two months. From finally getting together on election day to a vacation together in Hawaii last week. He didn’t know how they got from one to the other, but he was happy with where they were now. They hadn’t talked too much about it, but it had been enough for both of them for now. They had determined that they were exclusive, and that they weren’t going to be flashy about it, but they also weren’t going to hide it anymore.
As the crowd sat down, they were still looking at each other. They finally broke eye contact as the President began his speech and focused their gaze on him. Josh reached over and put his hand on Donna’s leg, and she took his hand in hers.
Happy was clearly an understatement.
*
“Are you ready?” Josh asked as him and Donna walked in to the White House together.
“For what?”
“For what? For your first day as Chief of Staff to the First Lady!”
“Josh, I’ve been her Chief of Staff for three days now, a week and a half if we count me accepting the job before disappearing to Hawaii for seven days.”
“You’ve been Chief of Staff to Mrs. Santos for three days. She became the First Lady about twenty minute ago.”
Donna stopped walking.
“Are you trying to freak me out?”
“What? No, I was just—”
“That’s a really cruel thing to do Josh. Here I am starting the career of a lifetime and you’re making jokes about it.
“I’m not making jokes! I was trying to get you excited—”
“Am I always going to be a joke to you? You need to come down off your pedestal, and if you can’t then I don’t know how we could possibly make this work.”
“Donna, I’m sorry I swear I wasn’t trying to—”
A widespread grin started to emerge on her face. She even started to laugh a little. A lightbulb turned on in Josh’s head.
“Oh, you are mean Donna Moss,” he hissed at her through his own grin he couldn’t help to hide.
“I got you good thought,” she replied as she reached out to straighten his tie, “couldn’t let you have all the fun today.”
He raised his eyebrows and waited for her to finish fixing his tie. “I have a couple meetings I have to get to this morning, but I was thinking that we could do lunch in my office if you’re free later.”
“I don’t have my full schedule for the day planned out yet, but if it fits then yeah, I would love to. Burgers from the place on the corner?”
“I was just thinking the same thing,” Josh said as he started to turn towards his office. “Call my office when you know your schedule.”
“Okay,” Donna half-heartedly replied as she was already flipping through the files her assistant just handed her.
Josh stopped walking to watch her. She looked so professional, sorting through documents and memos for the First Lady. He walked back towards her as she handed the files back to her assistant.
Josh reached out and loosely held her hand as it hung by her side. She immediately looked around to see if anyone had seen, purely out of instinct.
“Hey,” his quiet voice seemed to draw her attention back to him, “have a great day.”
He leaned in a planted a quick kiss on her cheek before starting to walk back to his office. He looked over his shoulder and saw her blush before she put her business face back on and headed towards the East Wing.